Arkansas Blog

Selling Obamacare: States differ, but Arkansas among those moving aggressively

SELLING OBAMACARE: A screen shot of the Arkansas website pushing enrollment for new health coverage options.

The state of Arkansas has embarked on a significant marketing campaign to get people to sign up to participate in Obamacare through health exchanges and the expansion of Medicaid approved by the Arkansas legislature. The marketing expenditures themselves have become another line of attack for Tea Party Republicans continuing the massive resistance campaign against Obamacare.

Other states are coping with the advent of Obamacare in different ways. The New York Times reports this morning:

Looking for the new health insurance marketplace, set to open in this state in two months, is like searching for a unicorn.

The marketplace, or exchange, being established by the federal government under President Obama’s health care law has no visible presence here, no local office, no official voice in the state and no board of local advisers. It is being run like a covert operation, with no marketing or detailed information about its products or their prices.

Isn't it interesting that Arkansas, with a new Republican majority legislature, is at the forefront of implementing Obamacare and advertising our participation? Thanks, Rep. John Burris. If you could only get your employer, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton (Burris is Cotton's political director), to understand the wisdom of your action. And, what, by the way, is going to happen to the "private option" if Cotton is successful in killing Obamacare as he repeatedly vows to do?